VW TDI used in Hybrid Supercar

[marvins_dad]

0-60 in 4 seconds
51 MPG
Soybean Biodeisel
Hybrid VW TDI/Electric.
Honda Accord Frame
5 Shop students and a shop teacher

Link to the WEst Philadelphia High Scool Electic Vehicle Team...
http://www.penn-partners.org/evteam/attack.htm

Modern supercars currently rely on huge engines to produce the power required to propel their occupants to breathtaking speeds. The students have found that coupling a high efficiency engine with a high output electric motor packaged in a lightweight body would exceed the acceleration of all supercars presently available. To achieve this, the students plan to use the K1 Attack as a platform (only 1800lbs) with a VW turbo diesel (200hp) powering the rear wheels, and AC Propulsions electric motor (200hp) powering the front wheels. To keep the weight low, the electric motor will be powered by a 450 volt ultra-capacitor pack (weighing only 200lbs). This configuration will allow the super hybrid to attain an impressive fuel economy of 50mpg and a zero to sixty acceleration under 4 seconds. Under normal driving conditions, the vehicle will solely be powered by the diesel engine. Therefore, the ultra-capacitor pack stores only enough energy for a few minutes of blazing acceleration.

Read the article and see the video on CBS...
Main Article

(CBS) The star at last week's Philadelphia Auto Show wasn't a sports car or an economy car. It was a sports-economy car — one that combines performance and practicality under one hood.

But as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America, the car that buyers have been waiting decades comes from an unexpected source and runs on soybean bio-diesel fuel to boot.

A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No — just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi, five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School

The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year — rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop.

"We have a number of high school dropouts," he says. "We have a number that have been removed for disciplinary reasons and they end up with us."

One of the Fab Five, Kosi Harmon, was in a gang at his old school — and he was a terrible student. The car project has changed all that.

"I was just getting by with the skin of my teeth, C's and D's," he says. "I came here, and now I'm a straight-A student."

To Hauger, the soybean-powered car shows what kids — any kids — can do when they get the chance.

"If you give kids that have been stereotyped as not being able to do anything an opportunity to do something great, they'll step up," he says.

Stepping up is something the big automakers have yet to do. They're still in the early stages of marketing hybrid cars while playing catch-up to the Bad News Bears of auto shop.

"We made this work," says Hauger. "We're not geniuses. So why aren't they doing it?"

Kosi thinks he knows why. The answer, he says, is the big oil companies.

"They're making billions upon billions of dollars," he says. "And when this car sells, that'll go down — to low billions upon billions."

Another article...
http://www.evuk.co.uk/news/index3.ht...ctric_supercar

[marvins_dad]

Oh, and the body is a kit car kit - "K-1 Attack"

The last pic is the shop teacher and the students.

Not too shabby guys!

[jpdeuce]

That's sweet...where do I get one?

[marvins_dad]

Yeah - I want one as well.
I thought there were snippets in those articles saying they might produce more? - I would totally sport one of those. I'm all about hybrids...with style

[Beeble]

TDIs rule. Those guys are really sharp and I hope they turn some heads and open some eyes.

[Dorado]

Burn da bean! And a few tires along the way... Thanks for posting the pics.

DIesels are the best match for hybrids, because low end torque situations tend to drain the batteries when using the electric motor, and low end torque is what diesel engines produce. The TDI produces its peak torque at just 1,900 rpm's.

Under normal driving conditions, the vehicle will solely be powered by the diesel engine.